State lawmakers have again introduced legislation to classify e-bikes as bicycles, rather than motor vehicles. Council Member Rafael Espinal has authored a resolution in support of the Albany bill, and is calling on the mayor to stop targeting commercial cyclists.

By almost any quantifiable safety metric, the helmet fixation has failed. People bike at low rates in the U.S. compared to international peers, and suffer higher injury and fatality rates per mile of cycling.

Car-Free Day is a fine event that suffers from being something of a political orphan. Mayor de Blasio has never embraced it and made it his own, and without mayoral backing it hasn't attained the scale of more notable car-free events around the world.